Contents

Are you a news hound who can't get through the day without a frequent dose of CNN? Got a craving for ticker crawls while you're crunching numbers? Well, have we got the monitors for you! These sleek and stylish LCD units feature built-in TV tuners. They've also got support for component video signals and HDTV, in case you want a cinematic experience. Priced at about $700, they cost about twice as much as a standard 17-inch LCD monitor, but you get a lot more.

According to Jon Peddie Research, about 21 million PCs are already equipped to show TV images on their monitors, and Microsoft's push for Windows XP Media Center Edition is certain to expand that use. Peddie expects that more than 8 million PC TV add-in boards will ship in 2003 alone, and monitor makers are responding to this demand by putting television functions into the monitors themselves.

We gathered five of the latest models for comparison: the Dell W1700, the Gateway 17-inch LCD TV, the Samsung 172MP, the Sharp LL-M17W1, and the ViewSonic N1700w. All have 17-inch-diagonal panels, though only four have wide-screen 16:9 aspect ratios. The wide-screen models are only as tall as a standard 15-inch LCD monitor, and they have Wide-XGA resolution (1,280 by 768 pixels). The Samsung panel has a 4:3 aspect ratio and SXGA resolution (1,280-by-1,024), so it's taller but not as wide. Note that it also has one-third more pixels, so you can display more information when using it as a PC monitor.

As hybrid TV/monitors, all of the displays share some common features. On the television side, each has a coaxial input for an antenna or cable connection. All offer a Picture-in-Picture (PIP) feature that lets you put a television or other source image in a window on your computer screen, but none let you put a television image on another television image (because they each have only a single tuner).

Each monitor comes with a remote control that lets you change channels, control the volume, and adjust the image settings. All have built-in speakers, which incidentally are a whole lot better than the tinny units you usually get in a computer monitor. For the most part, the speakers have good tonal range and volume; with the addition of a subwoofer, they'd sound pretty impressive. Most (except for the Gateway) have component video connections for high-quality images. On the computer side, all have analog VGA connectors.

All these displays are bright and sharp enough to work well as both monitors and televisions. All specify a pixel response time of 25 ms. We observed less smearing of moving images than with inexpensive LCD monitors but more than is seen on a CRT television. All are also too small for most living-room applications; they are best suited to solo viewing at a desktop or in space-restricted installations such as a kitchen counter. They are ideal for workers who need or want to monitor television information during the workday and for college students who need to get multiple use out of their work and entertainment hardware.

We put the five monitors through their paces, using both the DisplayMate utility (www.displaymate.com) to generate test images under Windows and a progressive-scan dvd player with component and composite video output. We tested the video-processing capability of monitors that accept an interlaced component video signal using clips from MadOnion. And we used a coaxial antenna connection to test over-the-air broadcast signals; Serendipitously, our test locale was in a fringe reception area, so the tuner differences stood out.

In the end, we found some significant differences among these displays. But although none are perfect, some are truly ready for a starring role on a desktop near you.

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.